Analyzing the Portfolio of 3 Super Investors
Which one is closest to your style?
It is always interesting to understand the investment style of super investors. In this article, we take a look at the portfolios of 3 of them: Bill Ackman, Terry Smith and Warren Buffett and
Bill Ackman
Bill Ackman, the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, is a prominent hedge fund manager known for his activist investment approach. He likes contrarian bets and looks for companies that he believes are undervalued or misunderstood by the market.
Quality-oriented, he looks for companies with competitive advantages, durable business models, and the potential for long-term growth. He is known for maintaining a concentrated portfolio with a relatively small number of carefully selected investments. This reflects a high level of conviction in his investment ideas.
His portfolio as in Novembre 2023:
Alphabet (A+C) - 17.21% of his portfolio
Chipotle Mexican Grill - 16.65%
Restaurant Brands International - 14.82%
Hilton - 14.75%
Lowe’s - 14.00%
Howard Hughes Holdings - 11.87%
Canadian Pacific Kansas - 10.70%
Terry Smith
Terry Smith is a British investor and the founder of Fundsmith LLP, a successful asset management firm. Terry Smith is known for his straightforward and disciplined investment approach.
He focuses on high-quality companies with clear, simple, stable and predictable business models. He is a long-term investor and has a low portfolio turnover. Smith generally avoids market timing and does not attempt to predict short-term market movements. He tends to favor companies with conservative capital structures and low levels of debt.
His portfolio as in November 2023:
Microsoft - 12.41% of his portfolio
Stryker - 6.85%
Meta Platforms - 6.83%
Philip Morris - 6.34%
Automatic Data Processing - 6.03%
Visa - 6.02%
Idexx Laboratories - 5.89%
McCormick - 5.26%
Pepsico - 5.11%
Waters - 4.74%
Alphabet - 4.51%
Marriott - 3.93%
Procter&Gamble - 3.21%
Brown-Forman - 3.17%
Church&Dwight - 3.03%
Nike - 2.91%
Mettler-Toledo - 2.86%
Otis - 2.35%
Fortinet - 1.31%
Apple - 1.04%
Verisign - 0.62%
Verisk Analytics - 0.57%
MSCI - 0.49%
Sabre - 0.46%
Qualys - 0.45%
Exponent - 0.42%
Equifax - 0.41%
Graco - 0.41%
Cognex - 0.39%
Idex - 0.37%
Rollins - 0.29%
IPG Photonics - 0.26%
Home Depot - 0.20%
Johnson & Johnson - 0.19%
Paycom - 0.19%
Zoetis - 0.18%
Mastercard - 0.11%
McDonald’s - 0.11%
Oddity - 0.07%
Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is known for his distinctive investment style, often referred to as "value investing." This approach involves finding undervalued companies with strong potential for growth and investing in them for the long term.
He is a long-term investor, investing in quality businesses with economic moat (sustainable competitive advantage). He often emphasizes the importance of investing in businesses that he can understand. Buffett often maintains a significant amount of cash to take advantage of investment opportunities that may arise during market downturns.
His portfolio as in November 2023:
Apple - 50.04% of his portfolio
Bank of America - 9.03%
American Express - 7.22%
Coca-Cola - 7.15%
Chevron - 5.93%
Occidental Petroleum - 4.64%
Kraft Heinz - 3.50%
Moody’s - 2.49%
Davita - 1.09%
HP - 0.84%
Verisign - 0.83%
Citigroup - 0.73%
Kroger - 0.71%
Visa - 0.61%
Charter Communications 0.54%
Mastercard - 0.50%
Aon - 0.42%
Amazon - 0.41%
Capital One Financial - 0.39%
Viacombs - 0.39%
Liberty Media - 0.35%
Snowflake - 0.30%
Nu Holding - 0.25%
Ally Financial - 0.25%
T-Mobile - 0.23%
Dr Horton - 0.20%
19 other postions - 1.37%
Conclusion
Although we should not copy them blindly, it is always interesting to take a look at the investment methods of super investors. However, past performance is no guarantee of future performance!
Of the 3, my investment style is closest to Terry Smith's. Which super investor are you closest to?